Friday 9 January 2015

Back garden antics

The latest news from the back garden ....

The squirrels are still raiding the feeders most days. Usually we only see one at a time, but some jobs obviously require a look out! This cheeky squirrel needed a bit of back up before he made off with half an apple.

Mrs Blackcap seems to have moved in and spends most of the day on the feeders and bird table. For a small little bird, she's very bold and doesn't think twice about chasing a bigger sparrow away. She's not at all shy and seems happy to take food from any of the feeders. No signs of love in her life yet, but I'm hoping a Mr Blackcap shows up soon for her.


We've had a few long-tailed tits in the garden, one of my favourite birds. A little gang of them seem to sweep through, twittering and flitting between the trees. Occasionally they stop off for a quick snack on the feeders, but never stay for long. They're such delicate little things with the prettiest little faces. A real treat to see!


I also saw a coal tit in one of the bushes yesterday, which is unusual for our garden. In fact I can't ever remember seeing one here before. He wasn't brave enough to use one of the feeders (at least not when I was looking anyway), but I hope to see him again.

We've gone from having a lot of blackbirds, when the berries on the bush by the patio were ripe, to only having one pair that seem to be here regularly. This female is easy to recognize as she has a white patch on her throat. They seem to have staked their claim on the garden.


The goldfinches and chaffinches are around most days in the garden. Whilst I love the colours on a male chaffinch, the female is a very sweet little bird too. They're just a bit easier to miss than the males!
Female chaffinch
Our resident robin seems to have found the new feeder I put up. He seems very fond of sunflower hearts, but mealworms are still his favourite. He asks for some every morning by peering in the window at me. He needs to eat them a bit faster though as the greedy starlings know what he's up to and gobble them all up if he's not quick enough.



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